I would definitely encourage everyone to travel for an extended period of time – it was a once in a lifetime experience, not only because we got to see some amazing places and met some amazing people, but also because we travelled in a completely different way then we normally would – on a pretty tight budget! And travelling as a couple was a great experience – we were both worried that it would be really difficult and may drive a wedge between us, especially since we were always long distance, but it definitely brought us together and it was amazing sharing all these new experiences with my best friend.

One of the main reasons people don’t do extended travel is because they think it would cost way too much – but if you watch your budget and go to some budget friendly areas, it is completely doable if you save!

When we were planning our trip, it was hard to find a lot of info on couples that travelled together – there were plenty of single backpacker budgets for the areas we were going to, but we knew that we wouldn’t be doing single dorm beds and because we were a few years older than the ‘typical’ backpacker, we knew we would want to do things just above what a backpacker would do. We would probably be considered ‘flashpackers’ a term that I think denotes people that have a slightly bigger budget (not much though) than a normal backpacker and probably a little older than the college backpacker crowd. It also meant that we went to places that weren’t on many of the typical backpacker trails because they were either a little more expensive or harder to get to (like Borneo, Indonesia or Uruguay).

We wrote a previous post on how we travelled in Thailand and what our spending preferences and styles were and for the most part, those habits and lessons remained true throughout our trip, so I won’t repeat it – the link to that post is here:

All in all, here were our final numbers for two people travelling in India, Southeast Asia and South America for 206 days or about 7 months (not including our three weeks in the US). Important note – we used airline miles for travel from the United States to India and back as well as from the United States to South America and back – all other flights are included in this budget. Also, we used hotel points for about 17 nights, but even though we saved on lodging, we found that especially in Asia, it turned out to be a wash in terms of expenses because the hotels had more expensive food, sometimes charged for internet and cost a lot more to get to and away from!

So we’ve been back in the States for over a month now and are just now wrapping up our travel blog! Eesh! It all seems like such a blurry memory now, but there are definitely things that stand out about our time in South America.

First, I wish we had actually planned our trip to the region better. When we first started our trip in January, we had a vague idea of what countries we would go to in each of the countries but since we were going to Asia first, we did more research of how and where to go. By the time we got to planning South America, we were too engorged in the backpacker way of travel and figured we would just figure it out as we went along! Which of course was fun too. But if I had to do it over again, I would have gone a different route. We started in Peru and flew into Uruguay and took the ferry over to Argentina. We basically just booked our flight to Peru and figured we would navigate our way once we got there (since we were still in Asia when we booked it and were busy figuring out Asia!). But we knew that we were also going to take Spanish classes in Buenos Aires so we should have probably gone there first! And then made our way over land northwest through Bolivia and Peru and possibly Ecuador. But we wanted to take our Spanish classes so we went straight from Peru to Uruguay / Argentina. We did hear some great things about Bolivia and I wish we had gotten a chance to go!

A few things to note about South America vs. travel in Southeast Asia:

1) South America is huge! It takes a LOT longer to travel between places in SA, though the buses in Peru and Argentina were perfectly comfortable (we heard Bolivia was not quite the same). We spent over two weeks in Peru and I felt like we saw maybe half of the places we wanted to see (mostly because we spent over a week in Cuzco / Machu Picchu) – we’ll have to go back one day and go through the Amazon part of Peru! We really loved the country as well and look forward to going back one day. Same thing with Argentina – it took us a day between Buenos Aires an d Iguazu via bus and about the same from Iguazu to Salta. But we couldn’t go down South to Patagonia (too cold for us!) and will definitely have to do that some other time!

2) Visas were a lot more expensive for US citizens (specifically, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia) – you can sometimes avoid these if you travel over land rather than coming in by air; however, Bolivia still charges the visa charge (over $100) if you travel over land.

3) Costs are much higher than in SE Asia as expected; but Buenos Aires and Uruguay were especially expensive – pretty much like things would be in the US – not great when on a budget!

One of the things I loved about South America is how different the cultures between countries was, even within country in the case of Argentina. Overall, people everywhere were pretty friendly and laid-back. There didn’t seem to be as much of an emphasis on material things and instead on social traditions and spending time with family and friends… something we can definitely learn from in the States! We learned in Spanish class that one of the reason parts of South America were similar to each other (like Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) but different from others (like Argentina vs. Peru) is that the Andes Mountains acted as a geographical barrier and therefore, the cultures East and West evolved somewhat in isolation. Even the Spanish was very different in the areas! We got by a lot easier in Peru where they spoke a lot slower and with a similar accent to what we’re used to with our Mexican version of Spanish. But the accents in Uruguay and Argentina were definitely different! Especially in their pronunciations and a lot of their words. We met a couple of ladies from the States who were working for Google in Buenos Aires and spoke Puerto Rican / Mexican Spanish and even they said they only understood 70 or 80% of what their coworkers said because of all the different words they use in BsAs! I didn’t feel so bad after that for understanding only half of what was being said! Lol.

Part of me wishes we had more time (and money!) to see other parts of South America especially since there is so much to see! But, at the same time, after almost eight months we were ready to go back home and already slightly extended on our budget. It’s okay though – we’ll just get to save those adventures for another time!

The day after our trip to the salt flats, we headed south to check out the wine-producing region of Cafayate. There was so much beautiful scenery along the way that we took nearly as much pictures on this day as we did of the Iguazu Falls. Many of the places we stopped were places where it looked like a vertical slice had been cut from the mountainside. We walked in, and they would open up into an area where you could continue climbing up into nooks and crannies, or into wide open spaces where you could hear echoes. Thinking back to Cafayate, we can still hear the echoes of the other giggling tourists. The two stops we remember were The Devil’s Throat (La Garganta del Diablo) and The Amphitheater (El Anfiteatro).

As with the trip to the salt flats, our time spent in an actual winery was not much compared to the time spent driving to and from, though it was a excellent way to see the scenery without having to do the driving directly, which took much of the day.

However, we did stop at one winery – Vasija Secreta. We got a tour of the production facilities. They had huge barrels, which were quite impressive. At one point during the tour, they pointed out a poem hanging on an overhead banner, which read:

Cafayate is famous by the grace of God because it holds grapes unique to the world and because of the decision of man to have special respect for great wines.

We didn’t enjoy the particular wines offered for the tasting as much, though we heard great things from other tourists about wines at nearby wineries in the region. (Perhaps another time…)

In the evening, we went to Paseo Balcarce, a five-block hip area of town with late-night clubs, restaurants, lights, shops, and street vendors. Though we waited over an hour for food, we had several drinks with a friend we’d met earlier in the day. Conversation flowed with the drinks, and we had a great time. Side Note: Argentinians eat dinner late, and go out to the pub/club late – we left the restaurant just before midnight, and the live band was just getting set-up for the night.

The next day, we relaxed at the hotel a bit and took some great shots of the city (our hotel was up on a hillside). And then, somewhat late in the day, decided to head to San Lorenzo to go horseback-riding. Not knowing the bus schedule, we took a taxi out, which dropped us off in the “main commercial area”, which was a strip mall with four shops in it. We had lunch and then started walking around. The town was beautiful. Very few vehicles, tree-lined two-lane roads, with leaves fluttering in the wind along the parkways (no sidewalks though). We found an adventure sports place, but we’d arrived too late, so we just kept walking. After a bit of uphill hiking, we ended up at the Quebrada – a stream running in the valley between mountains, with some picnic tables nearby. We enjoyed some quiet time, listening to the brook as it meandered its way over random rocks in the stream-bed. Gorgeous. We took a bus on the way back, which was substantially cheaper than the taxi had been, and took about the same amount of time.

In our free time around the city on our last day in town, we took some pictures at the monument to General Guemes, who is a national hero in Argentina. Everywhere we went seemed to have a major street named after him. It was in a big park on a hillside. We passed it a few times during our stay at the hotel, and noted that it was always packed with people in small groups, sitting on the steps, and in the plaza. It was encouraging to see people (many of whom were teenagers) hanging out at the park/plaza.

Salta was a beautiful city both during the daytime and at night. It never felt like a 500,000 person large city – we always felt like it was a small city of maybe 50,000 people. Just very laid-back, and relaxed. It was a great way to end our vacation. Well, before getting on another 20+ hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires.